“rasyk.lt”, a well-known Lithuania-based literature portal, has posted in English the poem “If There Were No War” by Mammad Araz, the People’s Poet of Azerbaijan, as part of the AzSTC project “Azerbaijan Literature in an International Virtual World.”

The author of the translation of the poems presented with information about the poet’s creativity is Patrick Woodcock, a Canadian poet-translator.

It is worth noting that the portal “rasyk.lt”, which has a wide auditorium of readers, regularly publishes works by such outstanding writers and poets as William Shakespeare, Alexander Pushkin, Jane Austen, Vladimir Nabokov.

Mammad Araz

 (1933–2004)

·     poet, translator;

·     is the author of books, such as “The Love Song”, “The Araz River Flows”, “I Will Find You”, “Songs Left by My Mother”, “The Caravan of Life”, “The Letter to the Reader”, “The Conversation at the Crossroads”, to name a few;

·     has translated poems by S. Mikhalkov, M. Svetlov, N. Nekrasov and other poets into Azerbaijani;

·     has been recognized with the following honourary awards: the People’s Poet of Azerbaijan, the “Istiqlal” Order, the Honoured Culture Worker of Azerbaijan, and the laureate of the State Prize.

If There Were No War

If there were no war,

we could build a bridge

between Earth and Mars

melting weapons in an open-hearth furnace.

If there were no war,

the harvest of a million years

could grow in one day.

Scientists could bring the moon

and stars to Earth.

The eyes of the general would say:

„I would be chairman in a small village

if there were no war! „

If there were no war,

we could avoid untimely deaths

and our hair would grey when it was time.

If there were no war,

we would face

neither grief, nor parting.

If there were no war,

the bullets of mankind would be our words,

and the main word of mankind would be love.

https://www.rasyk.lt/kuriniai/257528.html